Oside will not reduce night ambulance service

OCEANSIDE  Oceanside will not reduce the number of city ambulances operating at night — at least for now.

City Manager Peter Weiss had proposed scaling back nighttime ambulance service as a way to reduce Fire Department overtime costs.

But the City Council balked at that plan Wednesday night, deciding to delay any action. Deputy Mayor Jerry Kern said the council wanted to see if the department could come up with other solutions to the problem.

Oceanside Fire Chief Darryl Hebert agreed and said after the meeting that he appreciated that council giving him time to examine the situation.

Under the plan, the number of ambulances operating between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. would have been reduced from four to three.

Weiss made the recommendation last month, saying the move was prompted by steadily increasing costs for employee overtime in the Fire Department.

In a memo to the council, he said the Fire Department’s average monthly overtime costs have swelled to more than $225,000. In the last fiscal year, the department exceeded its budget by $665,000.

Fire officials said the city wasn’t properly accounting for overtime costs that are reimbursed by the state. Many of the departments overtime hours are incurred when Oceanside firefighters are called to fight fires in other parts of the state, such as the recent blazes in Yosemite and Riverside County.

Hebert also said the department has been hurt by budget cuts. He said he opposed the plan to cut back the number of ambulances.

“The last thing this city needs is a reduction,” he said.

The department is set to receive a $2.3 million federal grant that could reduce overtime costs, but not enough, officials said. The grant will reimburse the city for hiring up to 11 new firefighter-paramedics for two years.

Weiss said the council will likely have to reexamine the department’s overtime costs in the coming weeks.